"Legacy is the marks of your passage, scarred into the hearts and pelts of friends and enemies alike. Everything else is erased in carrion song- flesh to earth, blood to water, bones to dust."

Lye tries at first impression to be amiable and pleasant. He is not shy in the slightest, even overstepping boundaries and pushing too hard with questions. He's curious and likely to invade others' personal space in an attempt to claim power over interactions. His own cheer can come at inopportune moments, and it's a frequent point of frustration when he misses social cues. He tries very hard to be likeable and it comes off as disingenuous. Once one gets past that, he can be quite expressive, prone to pouting, anger, or excitement.

He frequently combines morbid humor and flirting to get a reaction out of others through teasing. This also leads him to misinterpret the advances of others, and often he believes others are simply giving him the same treatment. He's not good at taking what he dishes out-- friendliness is fine and good, it's a sign that he's performed the 'right' behaviors, but extreme casual intimacy quickly overwhelms him and causes him to panic or melt down.

He has a notable lack of common empathy and tends to dehumanize others around him, even those he loves-- and in fact, he frequently idolizes others and grows fond of them in a way disconnected from their agency as individuals. He'll do whatever he thinks is best for them without their consent.

More than anything, he hates when he can't get a reaction. He hates being stonewalled, ignored, or not being allowed a chance to prove his point.

Lye was the sole surviving kitten in a litter of five. His littermates succumbed to a range of things and he’ll rattle off the list like a nursery rhyme– this little kitten ate not one thing, this little kitten was eaten alive! This little kitten died from the heat, this little kitten took too deep a dive. His mother was also lost in that last incident, leaving Lye and a shaken father alone in the world.

His father Myrrhin was practiced with cleaning injuries and chewing salves, and as a community pillar he initially had the support of their colony. But, he descended into obsession over the preservation and consecration of the deceased's remains. Many of their former friends looked at Myrrhin’s fervor in distaste and eventually chased them out. Lye himself was frequently forgotten, unless he too was actively participating in his father’s efforts.

The two took up residence in the ruins of a small chapel outside of their colony’s territory, where they continued to get occasional visitors from the injured– both former friends who were reluctant to come, and wanderers passing through. Many cats Myrrhin was not able to save– either they arrived or were found too late, or had grievous injuries too severe for saving. He opened them up for study before cleaning their remains to lay to rest somewhere on the chapel grounds, and taught Lye while he was at it.

When Lye was a yearling, his father began efforts to divide him into two. Clean, careful cuts, and always a little at a time, to separate the pieces of him that were his father from the pieces of him that resembled his mother. Lye endured– until he didn’t. His father is buried under the chapel.

Lye continued his father’s work, but with less of an obsessed fervor than the late Myrrhin. And, with Myrrhin gone, the cats of the nearby colony began to visit with less reluctance. Lye did not have the frenzied passion for death, life, and the body that his father did– but he did have a steady, unconditional love for it. It was just unnerving enough to keep him from rejoining the colony fully, but not off putting enough compared to his father that they were afraid of him.

Sanctuary was broken when the window appeared and a miasma of poisonous fog smothered the neighboring colony in the night. Lye did not notice until the winds picked up, dispersing the fog and bringing the smell of death down to the chapel. In the midst of the clean up, another wanderer passing through informed him of similar events ongoing across the world– so Lye determined that he would set out to discover more behind what he views as the omens of death.

Lye travels with Scram to meet the Holocene, and on their way they encounter Selky, Runt, and Sailor.

At the meeting group itself, he ditches Scram after a comment from Selky discomforts him, and he ends up chatting with Rev for a time.

Thrown into cooperation with Sugar, Shaw, Harley, Sal, and Eulogy, they are able to work together to collect items that the Holocene requested. Though Lye initially gave Harley the cold shoulder when perceiving their closeness to Sal, Shaw's exhuberance and friendliness was enough to awaken his Soul and encourage him to make ammends.

Still, Lye displays some uncertainty in regards to the quality of Sal's friendship. Despite being excited to be reunited with Salamander at first, he remembers that she ultimately left and could leave again.

Their team only manages to solve one of the puzzles put forward to them, missing the final solution to the second puzzle by only one guess.

Can you feel the repeating change?

It comes to pass again.

Do not be long now...

. . .

. . .